Bible Strands
Psalms 83:14
As fire consumes a forest, as a flame sets the mountains ablaze,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist prays to God, requesting decisive action against a coalition of hostile nations conspiring against Israel.
The words — אֵ֥שׁ (Esh) translates as fire, and תִּבְעַר (tiv'ar) describes the active process of burning.
The thread — The text describes uncontrolled fire consuming forests and mountains before Deuteronomy 32:22 applies the image to God’s anger consuming the earth, Malachi 4:1 to a coming day of judgment, and Isaiah 9:18 to the spread of wickedness.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that divine judgment operates with total, inescapable force, leaving no possibility for enemy survival or resistance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
- Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
- Isaiah 9:18 For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets, which roll upward in billows of smoke.
- Isaiah 30:33 For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.
- Isaiah 33:11 You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will consume you.
- Isaiah 64:1 If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,
- Ezekiel 20:47 Say to the forest of the Negev: Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says: I am about to ignite in you a fire, and it will devour all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and by it every face from south to north will be scorched.
- Nahum 1:6 Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.
- Nahum 1:10 For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.